


Let It Snow

by Marcus_Gantry



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Fluff, Gen, fun in the snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27906487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_Gantry/pseuds/Marcus_Gantry
Summary: When Rabbit and The Spine won't go with him, Zero has an adventure on his own.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	Let It Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I'd take a try writing for Zero. A small bit of fluff here.

“Rabbit! Spine!”  
Zero was shouting all the way down the hallway to the music room where his brother and sister were just about to start a rehearsal. He barreled in still shouting. “Hey Spine! Rabbit! Do you want to go do something fun?” 

“Fun?” said The Spine. “You mean like rehearsal? It's about time you showed up.”

“That’s not fun. Oh….Er….That’s not what I mean, Spine,” Zero sputtered. “I mean even more fun than rehearsal. Something really fun!” 

“What could be more fun than rehearsal?” The Spine began tuning his guitar.

“Well…It’s, it’s fun! The guy said so.”

“What guy?” The Spine didn’t look up from the tuner. 

“The guy on the internet.”

“Zero!” both Rabbit and The Spine yelled almost in unison. “How many times have we told you not to talk to strangers on the internet?”

“But, but this was ok! This was the online chat thingy, the place where people hang out, the ones who like our music, and talk about silly fun things…well most of the time… You know. The Discord thingy. Always seemed a silly name for a chat thingy…Anyway, Yeah. I was hanging out over there and this guy, he’s an okay guy, he was talking about having something called a snowstorm and how much fun it was going to be to go outdoors and do something called shoveling. He was offering to have others come over and have some fun shoveling too. Do you want to go? We’d have to get Peter to open a portal cuz I don’t think he lives around here. Whadya think? Spine? Rabbit? Wanna go? Huh?”

The Spine looked over at Rabbit, who looked back at him grinning. They both started laughing.

“Then you do want to go?” asked Zero hopefully.

“No Zero.” The Spine was still laughing. “No, I don’t think we want to go. We’ve seen a snowstorm or two….” When he said that, their laughter trailed off. Both he and Rabbit got a momentary, faraway look in their eyes.

“But I want to go,” keened Zer0. “I never get to go anywhere. You got to go to space and everything.” Zero kicked at an imaginary can, imitating something he’d seen his brother do often.

"Yeah, about that Zero," The Spine started. Rabbit cut him off. 

“You get to go out on tour with us,” offered Rabbit. “We’ve been to some interesting places.”

“We haven’t been anywhere in ages!” Zero cried. “And it doesn’t sound like we’ll be going anywhere again for a long time. I heard you talking to Peter, Spine. You both said it could be months before we go out again. Months! Maybe even a whole year!” He turned away to hide the tears welling in his eyes. He looked out the window.

“Aw hey Zero, don’t cry.” The Spine went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Zero tried to shrug it off. 

“I just wanted to have some fun,” he whispered, wiping away tears.

“If it means that much to you, you can skip the rehearsal. Go ask Peter. He’s the one that has to open the portal.”

“You mean it Spine? Do you and Rabbit want to go too?”

“Well… I think Rabbit and I would like to stay here, where it’s nice and warm.”

“But…it won’t be fun without someone to go with.” Zero looked up at them hopefully. 

“I’ll go with you Zero,” came a voice from the hallway. It was Camille. They all turned to the doorway as she came in. She had come to check up on them as they should have been playing music by now. It made her Walter Worker spidey-senses twitch when they were too quiet. Quiet robots too often meant nothing good was happening and that there would soon be a huge mess to clean up.

“I’ll go with you,” she repeated.

“You will?” Zero brightened, his tears forgotten.

“Sure, if Peter agrees to it. All we can do is ask. I haven’t seen a snowstorm in ages!” She took him by the hand and led him from the room. Zero was so happy he didn’t even hear The Spine and Rabbit break out into another fit of laughter behind him.

Moments later Peter was talking on a Zoom call. He had sent Zero and Camille to get ready to go after acquiescing to Zero’s huge puppy dog eyes and after a quick discussion with Camille about what leaving the manor would mean.

“Ok," Peter was saying to a man on the call. "You can’t let Zero into the house, your floor joists won’t take the strain. Is there any place he can go inside to warm up if needed?”

“Yeah, the garage is ground level concrete and it’s heated out there. Are you sure he really wants to come to shovel snow? I was joking you know. It really isn’t all that much fun.”

“Zero can make anything fun if you don’t tell him otherwise. It’d mean a lot to him to be able to go out on his own, well, with Camille with him. You’re ok for her to be there too?”

“Oh sure, as long as you and she are ok with it. I have a mask. I did have a test a few days ago and it came back negative, not for exposure, but for a minor surgical thing coming up on Monday.”

Peter nodded. This couldn’t have turned out better if he’d planned it. “Ok. I see from a satellite shot you have a patio out back that’s relatively sheltered from the neighbors. If you have any furniture out there…”

“It’s winter, all that stuff is put away, but I will move the BBQ. Gotta have my BBQ even if it’s minus 20 and snowing. It’s not running now though, so I’ll put it closer to the house. Uh, you know there is almost two feet of snow out there now, right?”

Peter laughed. “There won’t be, soon. He looked at his watch. Ok, twenty minutes. Don’t be out there. And best not to look directly at the nexus point.” 

The man on the other end of the line laughed. “Just have em knock at the back door when they get here. I’ll have my snow gear on and ready to go.”

Hours later, The Spine was relaxing in the main study watching the fire Peter had built in the fireplace. Zero's puppy had joined him and lay curled up at his feet. These fires always fascinated him. He loved watching the flames. Sometimes he would even compose music to the dancing patterns he’d see there. Besides, sitting in front of the fire with a puppy curled up at your feet was a human thing to do. And he was all for that too. It had been a relatively quiet afternoon at the manor, with Zero not there to enable Rabbit’s crazy ideas. From the sound of things upstairs Rabbit had engaged in some form of video gaming to pass the time. Suddenly there was a banging noise out in the main hallway. The noise was followed by loud, jovial laughter.  
Zero was back.

The Spine went out to welcome him, but couldn’t help but laugh when he saw him. Zero was soaking wet from head to toe, his dreads plastered to his head like a wet squid, his clothes dripping. He was carrying a snow shovel and he wasn’t being too careful about how he was swinging it around. That was the banging he had heard. Camille was behind him laughing, not nearly as wet. She still had her mask on.

When she saw The Spine she said to Zero, "I’m going down to the cottage for quarantine now. You go on up and get dried off and changed. Chelsea will help you out if you need help. And don't forget to put your clothes in the laundry." She gave him a big hug. "I had fun today! Thanks for bringing me along!” He returned the hug gently.

“Thanks for going with me. I had a lot of fun too!" He looked momentarily sad, "I’m sorry you have to quarantine,” then his face brightened, “But I’ll be down to visit with you later, Okay?” Camille nodded with a smile, “I’d like that.” Waving to The Spine, she turned and went out, headed in the direction of the garage. Behind the garage, at the bottom of the hill, was a small cottage that was kept ready as a guest house. She’d be spending the next two weeks there. 

Rabbit came downstairs on hearing Zero’s return.  
“You’re soaked!” she exclaimed, trying to stifle a laugh, but not succeeding.

“Yeah,” said Zero a little sheepishly as he looked at the puddle of water he was standing in.

“Did you have fun?” The Spine asked. He was a little bit afraid of what the answer was going to be. He knew from experience that shoveling snow was not fun.

“Oh yeah!” Zero’s face lit up with a grin bigger than The Spine had seen in a long while. “There was all this snow, almost up to my knees! And all these trucks were going by pushing it around.” He raised his arms wide over his head. “Big trucks with chains on their tires, like my chain.” He grasped at his chain necklace and gave it a rattle. “Only bigger! And they had these shovels on the front. They banged em down like this and pushed the snow.” He dropped the shovel in front of him with a bang then pushed it up the hallway and back, making truck noises, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind him. “I got to do the whole driveway! Just like a big truck! That was fun! Then we made a snowman and had a snowball fight and, and some other kids up the street brought out sleds and Camille watched from the house as I got to ride a toboggan down the hill! Woosh! And we all fell off at the bottom. We musta done it a hundred times! It was great! Then we all had hot chocolate…well the other kids did, I had hot water, and it tasted sooooo good. Then we came home!” He paused and held out his arms looking down at his wet clothing. “I guess I gotta go up and change now. See ya later Spine! Rabbit!” He slogged on up the stairs, his chain necklace jangling and carrying his snow shovel proudly.

“Spine?”  
“Yeah Rabbit?”  
“I think we missed out on somethin’ there.”  
“Yeah, me too.”  
The Spine looked wistfully at the trail of wet footprints on the stairs.  
From the hallway above came a loud bang and the scraping of a shovel along the wooden floor, truck noises receding into the further recesses of the manor.


End file.
